1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a digital mobile terminal, including a cellular phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Hand Held Phone (HHP), an MP3 phone, a game phone, a camera phone, an Internet phone or a communication device combining one or more of such phones. More particularly, the present invention relates to a locking device for a sliding/swing type mobile terminal, which prevents the terminal from swinging while sliding and from sliding while swinging.
2. Description of the Related Art:
The term “mobile terminals” refers to handheld devices used for data transmissions or wireless communications while moving. It is a current trend that mobile terminals are becoming smaller, sleeker and lighter to improve portability and are implementing various multimedia functions and services. Particularly, mobile terminals are changing to become multifunctional, multipurpose and multimedia devices, and are expected to be modified to meet various multimedia and Internet environments. With such trends, mobile terminals have quickly attained worldwide popularity as a necessity for people of all ages.
Generally, mobile terminals are classified into different types, such as a bar type, a flip type and a folder type, according to their outward appearances. Also, depending on where and how a user puts the terminal on, mobile terminals can be classified into a neck wearable type or a wrist type. Such various types of mobile terminals are obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art.
Mobile terminals have gone beyond merely being telephones for voice communication and are becoming more integrated to perform high-speed data transmission. In other words, mobile terminals are changing to offer high-speed data transmission services by using wireless communication technologies to meet the increasing demand of users.
Mobile terminals equipped with a camera can send image signals to another terminal. Conventional mobile terminals generally include an external type or internal type camera lens module to take pictures or to offer video conferencing.
In a conventional mobile terminal, it is uncomfortable to watch videos and TV through its display device because a TV mode and video mode require a wider range display screen than when information is displayed. Therefore, sliding/swing type mobile terminals have been developed, which have a display device capable of swinging after sliding.
One example of a conventional sliding/swing type mobile terminal is disclosed in a Korean patent No. 0681068 in greater detail, which patent is owned by the applicant, and which is hereby incorporated by reference.
A sliding/swing device of the Korean patent No. 0681068 includes a body housing, a sliding housing which swings after sliding while being in facing contact with the body housing, first and second hinge frames, first and second plates, a slide bar, and a connecting unit.
However, the sliding/swing device for the mobile terminal above has a configuration in which the sliding housing can be swung only after sliding from the body housing but can not be swung before sliding. Therefore, it is uncomfortable that the sliding housing must be swung after sliding if the user needs to use the display device widely. In addition, it is a disadvantage that the sliding housing swings regardless of the user's intention after having been slid.